Custom-made, to commission, in the client’s choice of materials, the Span Bench is a practical bench with industrial chic good looks. Shown here, it is made in English Oak supported by two custom-cast concrete ‘spans’ connecting the legs and the seat, together with structural steel cross ties. As with all of the work produced by Temper Studio every detail is beautifully thought through.

The Plane Carving Board is handmade from sustainable English Ash. As practical as it is beautiful, it features routed juice channels and brass spikes to hold the meat in place. A separate small serving board shields the spikes when the board is not in use. The Plane is made in Temper’s Wiltshire workshops and finished with natural oils and waxes. Its geometric faceted surfaces bring contemporary minimalism to traditional Sunday roasts.

The Span Cabinet is a quirky, characterful design that celebrates new and exciting materials and processes. Crafted in Pippy Oak, an unusual timber that shows the grain of the wood and also the texture of knots, or ‘pips’, together with Walnut and Sycamore elements. Supported by concrete ‘spans’ connecting the legs and the top with structural brass cross ties, the cupboard also features wired glass doors with brass handles and leather drawer liners.

Temper Studio’s innovative Instagram competition, Make a Thing a Day, offered the chance to win a different “small unique product” every day, handmade by George Winks at his idyllic Temper Studio workshops in Wiltshire. Prizes ranged from the ‘Plane’ low table to wood and copper planters, the ‘Disc’ adjustable bike rack and the remarkable ‘Choppy Waters’ wooden bowl. A great week for all five prizewinners and for George, giving him another opportunity to flex his creative muscles making these small but perfectly formed pieces.

The original Beam design explores what George calls ‘symbolic friction’ between structural elements; in this case English Sycamore and cast concrete, fitted together like a spine to create a piece which is rich in material texture and architectural presence. The Beam Desk adapts the design with a modular drawer unit which can be placed in any of the six spaces between the wooden ribs.

The drawers, visible from above through the toughened glass top, are lined in silk fabric designed by award winning surface designer Anna Glover, featuring a graphic snake and leaf motif.

The Beam Desk is available in a choice of sustainable British hardwoods including Sycamore, Oak, Ash and Beech and is hand rubbed in Danish oil and natural Beeswax, providing a rich and durable finish.

Taking cues from traditional rural woodcraft, the PLANE Bench is a simple construction in English hardwood, updated and re-interpreted in Temper’s idiosyncratic style. The surfaces are precisely hand-shaped into geometric facets allowing light to reflect and break across them. Brushed brass cross-ties lend clean minimalist support to the structure.

Shown here in Ash, the Plane Bench is also available to order in any British sustainable hardwood.
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Custom-made, to commission, in the client’s choice of materials, The Foley writing desk is an elegant workstation for home or office. Shown here, it is made in British Oak with Walnut interiors. Every detail is beautifully thought through, from the two secret drawers which open with concealed buttons to the cable hatch at the back of the desk with a cable management drawer beneath. A subtle reference to industrial style, the inset zinc top is a cool metallic counterpoint to the warmth of the beeswax-finished timber.

This year’s London Design Festival kicked off with Decorex at Syon Park. The theme was the future of luxury, with over 300 brands offering their take on luxury interiors.

Bert & May Space’s ‘Big Box’ greeted visitors outside the entrance to Decorex. The bespoke modular home included two bedrooms, a bathroom and a kitchen living space, with an eco-friendly green roof. We wouldn’t mind one in our garden!

Inside, the entrance featured a sumptuous floral archway designed by florist Hattie Fox.

Three of Arc’s clients exhibited at Decorex this year. Lapicidalaunched three new tables designed by Lara Bohinc as part of the Lunar Collection. These were shown on stand alongside a striking green marble bath, hewn from a single block of marble, marble basins and new surfaces for walls and floors.

Drummonds’ stand backed onto Lapicida’s, with three displays themed around Town House, Country House and Martin Brudnizki’s new collection for Drummonds. Martin Brudnizki designed the stand, with bright blue tiles and chic white panelling on the walls, showcasing new products including a vanity basin and a column shower.

Felt, exhibiting for the first time since 2007, had a colourful array of Shyrdak rugs on stand, including many new designs. The vivid wool rugs are handmade by the nomadic makers in Kyrgyzstan and Felt ships to clients all over the world.

Another highlight was Volta's stand which featured a Virtual Reality experience, part of Decorex's selection of interactive installations on the theme of Making Luxury. Visitors donned Oculus Rift headgear and were taken on a journey through a series of virtual rooms with beautiful Volta ceilings. Visitors are encouraged to look up - as Volta's aim is to revive interest in the almost lost art of hand painted canvas ceilings. There was also a craftsman on stand, hand painting a canvas.

Decorex hosted a series of seminars throughout the four days, with speakers such as designer Abigail Ahern and Hatta Byng, editor of House & Garden. We attended ‘Luxury For Ever’, a talk chaired by Studioeditor Kate Burnett on how we can create a sustainable approach to luxury design.

Elsewhere, Design Junction ran from Thursday 24th to Sunday 27th at two new venues – Victoria House and the College, formerly the home of Central Saint Martins. Victoria House hosted retail brands, with lots of shopping opportunities, including Lara Bohinc’s new collection of desktop accessories for Swedish company Skultuna. Members of the public can bid for one of the customised Eames elephants on display, the work of leading designers, artists and architects, with profits going to ‘A Child’s Dream’ project, in support of Teddy’s Wish.

Across the road in the College were the more trade focussed design brands, such as Fritz Hansen, Vitra and Objekten. The College has been largely disused since Central Saint Martin’s moved to new quarters in Kings Cross in 2011 and the venue provided a characterful backdrop to the exhibition.

Over in Clerkenwell, Temper Studio and surface designer Anna Glover teamed up for 'Span', a week long show at Craft Central in Clerkenwell. We attended the late opening, which showcased the beautiful Span Daybed, hand crafted from British Oak, Ash, brass, concrete and silk. The silk upholstery was designed by Anna Glover, recent winner of a 2015 Elle Decoration British Design Award.

As well as furniture, Temper Studio also designs smaller accessories, available through the online shop. These include the PLANE Serving Boards, made from sustainably sourced British hardwoods and hand shaped and finished in Temper Studio’s Wiltshire workshop.

Each board is wholly unique, showcasing the natural beauty of English Walnut, Sycamore and Pippy Oak. The boards are hand-rubbed in Danish Oil and natural beeswax, creating a rich, polished surface on which to serve culinary delicacies. With their angular, faceted edges, the boards also make elegant display pieces.

The rising young star of British furniture design, George Winks of Temper Studio is exhibiting at The London Design Festival.

‘SPAN’ is Temper Studio’s second collaboration with surface designer Anna Glover. In 2014 they teamed up first at LDF and then for a seven week residency at London’s Design Museum in a project called ‘Jungle Tank’.

This year's exhibit features the 'Span Daybed', an exercise in austere elegance made in British Oak and Ash, finished with Danish Oil and beeswax to highlight the timber’s natural warmth. Against this, concrete and brass elements form a more industrial counterpoint. Anna Glover's use of luxurious silk and the layered graphic prints add both a softness and a sense of movement to the piece.

The juxtaposition of structural materials seen in the Span Daybed is typical of George Winks’ work. He makes what he calls “useable objects with a sense of architectural permanence”. At his Wiltshire-based Temper Studio, an ongoing process of experimentation sees his designs evolving through what George describes as “play, prototyping, risk, failure and stubbornness”.

Being held at Craft Central, the SPAN collaboration will show new works from both Temper Studio and Anna Glover, with the Span Daybed taking centre stage.

Temper Studio's new Beam Table explores what founder George Winks calls ‘symbolic friction’ between structural elements; in this case English Oak and cast concrete, fitted together like a spine to create a piece which is rich in material texture and architectural presence. The junction between the two materials is highlighted with a flash of coloured felt seen through the plate glass top.

Every Beam Table is made to commission in Temper Studio’s Wiltshire workshops. Clients choose both the timber and size. The Beam Table shown here measures L150 x W75 x H72cm.

Temper Studio has created two new pieces exclusively for the Mint design gallery in South Kensington. Launched last night, the designs are part of Mint’s annual Spring exhibition in May, bringing together international designers to celebrate the best of contemporary craft. The launch of ‘Contours of Spring’ coincides with London Craft Week 2015.

The new pieces include the Beam bench and the Beam coffee table, handmade in Temper Studio's rural Wiltshire workshops. The Beam coffee table is crafted in British Oak with distinctive concrete elements, embracing the trend for mixed materials. Brass fittings, leather detailing and a toughened glass top complete the look.

George Winks, founder of Temper Studio, unveiled his Wallpaper* Handmade collaboration at Salone del Mobile in Milan this week. The Tessellated Wine Crate/Rack was designed in collaboration with designer Kacper Hamilton for the sixth Wallpaper* Handmade exhibition, dedicated to craftsmanship and design.

This year’s Handmade show is called ‘Eat Me, Drink Me, Tell Me That You Love Me’ and focusses on food, drink and entertaining. Inspired by former advertising guru, now winemaker, John Hegarty’s robust yet humble approach to wine, George and Kacper devised a modular wine crate. This reconfigures into a sculptural 3D wine rack for the home, designed to be assembled in many different combinations. The crates themselves are hand made in English Oak, with distinctive charred interiors and detailing in brass and leather.

The rising young star of British furniture design, George Winks founded Temper Studio in 2013. His craft aesthetic is influenced by both traditional and modern construction, from the complexity and precision of Japanese joinery to the modest beauty of the Shaker movement. He makes what he calls ‘usable objects with a sense of architectural permanence’.

The Tessellated Wine Crate/Rack will appear in Wallpaper’s August issue.

The rising young star of British furniture design, George Winks founded Temper Studio in 2013. His design aesthetic is influenced by both traditional and modern construction techniques, from the complexity and precision of Japanese joinery to the modest beauty of the Shaker movement. He makes what he calls “usable objects with a sense of architectural permanence”.

George was born in Johannesburg, where his father, a keen weekend carpenter, was happy to let George grow up ’messing around’ in his carpentry workshop. As a teenager, he apprenticed himself to a master knife maker and, aged 19, moved to London to study Fine Art. This ultimately led him back to exploring carpentry and furniture design.

Since establishing Temper Studio two years ago, he has received many private commissions as well as wide recognition from the design community including a seven week show in the Design Museum Tank (November 2014) and an invitation to make a piece for the 2015 Wallpaper* Handmade Show in Milan.

An important facet of George’s work is a love of dissonant materials; creating what he calls ‘symbolic friction’ between rigid elements such as timber and concrete and yet achieving a remarkable delicacy and precision.

The spirit of experimentation which George Winks found in childhood leads him to view his workshops, in rural Wiltshire, as far more than a place of production. Rather, he sees it as a laboratory, believing that play, prototyping, risk, failure, stubbornness and flexibility are essential aspects of the design process. Out of this laboratory emerges a torrent of ideas for pieces large and small, from tables and chairs to designerly dumbbells and chopping boards.